Poll: Half of Cambridge University Students Cheat and Use Wikipedia as Main Source

A student newspaper poll found that half of Cambridge University students admit to cheating on an exam or submitting an essay they found using Google search (or Wikipedia).

The poll was posted by Varsity, the student newspaper at the esteemed Cambridge University. The paper asked students whether they cheated in the past. It received responses from more than 1,000 students, who responded anonymously. Poll results showed 49 per cent of the students admitted cheating by submitting someone else’s work as their own. Among them, only 5 per cent have been caught cheating. The poll showed a higher percentage of law students students cheating -- about 62 per cent admitted to it. One student wrote in the responses:

"Sometimes, when I am really fed up, I Google the essay title, copy and throw everything on to a blank word document and jiggle the order a bit. They usually end up being the best essays."

The poll also found that nearly 82 per cent of students use Wikipedia information over university-approved research sources. I would bet this is a big concern for parents and Cambridge University administration.